The Social Construction of Corruption in Europe

The volume demonstrates the suitability of the theory of social constructivism in portraying and analyzing the diversity of the phenomenon of corruption. The approach of social constructivism taken in this volume is able to reconstruct the 'construction of corruption' both from a societal perspective, by assessing it as generally accepted or tolerated behaviour in more or less standardized rule-governed social situations, and from the perspective of actors who perceive corrupt behaviour as problem solving in everyday life. The volume proves the usefulness of a social construction perspective for empirical research. It contains case studies of social definitions of corruption in eleven European countries that contribute in different ways to establishing a grounded theory of the phenomenon of corruption.

Dirk TA?nzler, professor at the Department of History and Sociology of Konstanz University, Germany, coordinator of the EU-research projects 'Crime and Culture. Crime as a Cultural Problem' (2006-2009) and 'Promotion of Participation and Citizenship in Europe: Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres (ALACs). Analysis and Enhancement of an Anti-Corruption Tool to Enable Better Informed and Effective Citizen Participation' (2009-2012). Visiting Professor at Vienna University (2005, 2006), Zurich University 2007, Lucerne University 2008, publications in the field of cultural, visual, political, economic sociology, sociology of knowledge, sociology of corruption, social theory and methodology. Konstadinos Maras, research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Essen, Germany and research fellow in the EU-projects 'Crime and Culture' and 'ALACs'. Lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences of the University of TA?bingen and research associate at the "European Centre for Scientific, Ecumenical and Cultural Co-operation" in WA?rzburg. Visiting Scholar at the Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, USA (2004). He has published in critical theory, aesthetics, European identity and integration and political corruption. Angelos Giannakopoulos, Research and Teaching Associate at the Department of History and Sociology of Konstanz University, Germany, Head of Office of the EU-research projects 'Crime and Culture' and 'ALACs'. Visiting Professor at the Universities of Cyprus (2007, 2008), Galatasaray Istanbul (2007) and Budapest (2004), Visiting Scholar at the Centre for International and Area Studies at Yale University, USA (2004) and at Waseda University, Tokyo (2007). He has published in the fields of the sociology of culture, political sociology and European integration.